Why Are You Waiting?

by Jacob Hudgins

“And now why do you wait? Rise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on his name”(Acts 22:16).

Serving God is urgent. It is more pressing than any deadline and more necessary than obeying any boss. Paul had been praying and fasting for the three days since he realized he was wrong. Seconds earlier he had heard what he needed to do. Yet Ananias chides him: “Why are you waiting?”. Serving God is urgent.

When the Philippian jailer had a rough night, he came to Paul and Silas with a burning question: “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”(Acts 16:30). They did not make an appointment to study later. “And they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their wounds; and he was baptized at once, he and all his family”(Acts 16:33-34). Obeying God is a “same hour of the night” affair. When we know what God expects, how can we wait?

But it is not only conversion that is urgent! Making real change in our lives is urgent. Nehemiah confessed his sin, “Moreover, I and my brother and my servants are lending them money and grain. Let us abandon this exacting of interest”(Neh 5:10). Let’s stop this now!

Paul reminds us that “salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light”(Rom 13:11-12). Is there something you need to do to obey God? A sin to forsake? A commitment to make? Why are you waiting?